Thursday, 13 October 2011

Earlier this week, I presented "A Comparison of Recommended Strategies for Reversed Phase HPLC Method Development" at the Separation Science Europe 2011 Conference. The venue for the conference was the Royal institute in London. It was amazing to present at the same location as eminent scientists from the past such as Michael Faraday and Humphry Davy. The conference programme included a fascinating mix of topics relating to LC and GC applied to a wide range of analytes in the pharmaceutical, environmental and bioclinical sectors.

The highlight for me was a presentation from Ron Majors about ‘Just Enough’ sample preparation where Ron described how analysis by LC-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS has enabled the use of simplified sample preparation procedures. Four examples were presented: Protein precipitation in blood plasma; QuEChERS for pesticide residues; Dried Blood (Matrix) Spotting; and Pharmaceutical pollutants in river water with almost no sample preparation. The potential of reducing both time and error by reducing sample preparation is very appealing.